Currently industrial automation systems are built using a hierarchical top-down approach, yielding tightly coupled and low flexibility systems. Holonic and intelligent agent-based industrial control systems have the potential to be much more highly robust and flexible systems with very loose coupling between subsystems. This paper explores Rockwell Automation’s current agent philosophy, applica...

This paper introduces idea of a system architecture for industrial automation software systems which integrates the formal background of modular place transition models with the ideas of the upcoming IEC61499 standard for component based distributed measurement and control systems. Goal of the architecture is to support simulation and formal verification as a natural part of the engineering pro...

Static analysis is a highly successful measure when applied in software development. However, there is a lack of corresponding methods and tools in context of industrial automation systems. In this talk we give an overview of different applications of static analysis and the opportunities they provide for software development in industrial automation.

Twenty years ago, fieldbus systems have been developed for the factory floor and are widely introduced in industrial automation installations in the meantime. In the nineties Ethernet-based technologies have been successfully introduced to office automation followed by the usage of Internetbased applications. Today industrial automation is getting penetrated by the same IT technologies used in ...

In the face of a future rise in energy prices, energy-efficient operation of industrial automation systems has strategic impact for manufacturing companies. The reduction of energy demand during unproductive phases helps to contribute to the overall energy efficiency of automated production systems. Up to now, there is no general scientific concept which addresses energy-efficient operation of ...

This chapter summarizes our latest results concerning the development and the industrial application of the emerging “collaborative industrial automation” technology and its powerful meaning for facilitating the integration of a dynamic reconfigurable shop floor into a virtual factory. It argues, in this respect, that having a conglomerate of distributed, autonomous, intelligent, fault-tolerant...

Many industrial use cases, such as machine diagnostics, can benefit from embedded reasoning, the task of running knowledge-based reasoning techniques on embedded controllers as widely used in industrial automation. However, due to the memory and CPU restrictions of embedded devices like programmable logic controllers (PLCs), state-ofthe-art reasoning tools and methods cannot be easily migrated ...